SARAJEVO, June 18 (FENA) - On the occasion of the current debate on the selection of judges of the Constitutional Court of BiH from the BiH entity FBiH, member of the Presidency of BiH Denis Bećirović said that the selection of judges of the Constitutional Court of BiH should not be the subject of political trade between different parties.
"It is time to end the political practice dominantly established by SDA and HDZ in the Federation of BiH and SNSD in Republika Srpska, according to which party functionaries were elected to the Constitutional Court of BiH," says Bećirović.
He reminds that according to Article VI/1 of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of nine judges, of whom four members are elected by the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, two members are elected by the National Assembly of the Republika of Srpska, while three members are elected by the President of the European Court of Human Rights in consultation with the members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The criteria for the selection of members of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, are that the candidates must be lawyers of high moral standing, which means that representatives of the constituent nations are not elected to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, let alone that candidates are determined in advance by any political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Namely, he clarifies that, according to information available to the public, the list of the most successful candidates also includes a person for whom the Commission for determining the list of the most successful candidates did not provide adequate evidence from which it could be concluded that the proposed candidate (among more than ten other candidates, including current judges, professors and doctors of legal sciences, proven legal practitioners and other distinguished lawyers), belongs to the ranks of prominent lawyers of high moral standing.
"On the contrary, in the list of successful candidates, below the first-placed candidate, the Commission of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament ranked numerous other lawyers who, according to the criteria and standards of the legal profession and science, legal practice, and constitutional court practice deserve to be better ranked from the first place on the list of candidates for judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The only reasonable solution based on the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina is to restore independence, expertise and transparency in the process of electing judges of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and to consistently respect the constitutional criteria of the legal profession and science," Bećirović stated.
(FENA) A. B.